Josef Joffe News

Some of my best friends are very rich -- people with condos on Central Park West and tastefully refurbished palazzi in Italy. The puzzle: Why do so many of them vote Democratic or praise the high-taxing European welfare state?

Germany’s trade and investment ties with the U.S. won’t be damaged by German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s condemnation of American surveillance programs, said Josef Joffe, editor and publisher of Die Zeit newspaper.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s condemnations of U.S. surveillance programs won’t damage strong trade and investment ties between the two countries, said Josef Joffe, editor and publisher of Germany’s Die Zeit newspaper.

The multipronged attack carried out by a Taliban faction in Afghanistan last weekend, including sustained raids in the capital’s diplomatic quarter and on Parliament, was meant, the New York Times reported, to “undermine confidence in NATO and Afghan military gains.”

Most criticism of government profligacy in Europe lately has focused on the obvious sinners, such as Greece, which already had massive public debts and deficits when the global financial crisis struck almost four years ago.

Spain’s economic woes are triggering renewed fears over a potential default in the euro area, and much of the blame belongs to labor laws that date back to the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco. Unless the government succeeds in changing them, it’s hard to see the country returning to healthy growth even if it manages to stay solvent.

Officials in Sacramento, California, are furious that the owners of the Kings basketball franchise, the Maloof family, said they are backing out of a handshake deal in February to invest $73 million in a project to build a new arena downtown.